Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Relationship Between Food Frequency & Menstrual Distress in High School Females - Iran

BACKGROUND:

Nutrition
pattern is one of the important factors predicting menstrual distress, which varies
among different cultures and countries. The purpose of this study is to
determine the relationship between food frequency and menstrual distress in
high school girls from Mashhad.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

This
cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 using a two-stage sampling method
on 407 high school female students from Mashhad who met the inclusion criteria.
Subjects completed questionnaires of demographic characteristics, food
frequency, and Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) during three phases of
the menstrual cycle (a week before bleeding, during menstrual bleeding period,
and a week after menstruation). The collected data were analyzed by statistical
tests such as Pearson correlation coefficient test, independent Student's
t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

RESULTS:

Results
showed that 87.7% of the students were at moderate economic status, 82.2% were
exposed to cigarette smoke, 94.8% had mothers without university education, and
9.4% had working mothers. About 71% of the students reported minor
pre-menstruation distress, 81% reported minor distress during bleeding, and 39%
reported minor post-menstruation distress. In addition, the mean (SD) values
for sweet-fatty foods, salty-fatty foods, fast foods, and caffeine were 3.6,
3.3, 1.3, and 10.2 per week, respectively. In addition, Pearson correlation
coefficient test showed no significant correlation between total menstruation
distress and food frequency (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS:

With
regard to the inappropriate food frequency and high intensity of menstrual
distress among high school students and as health care and educational efforts
for prevention and health promotion in society are among the duties of health
workers, the results of this study can help the officials involved in education
to emphasize on nutrition and the menstrual health of students.

Below: Frequency distribution of age, BMI, and socioeconomic status among female students

Below: Frequency distribution of nightly and daily sleep, physical activity and length of physical activity, and exposure to smoke among female students

Below: Frequency distribution of subjects’ nutritional pattern based on the number of weekly consumptions